By Maryanna Gabriel
"There comes from her all joyous honesty...." Francesco Petrarch
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| Mouth Of The Sorgue |
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| Shutters On Stone Houses |
We were at the mouth of the Sorgue near Fountaine de Vaucluse. It seemed a lifeless and fairly dim pit filled with water but the marks on the cliff indicated times when the flow is very high. A charming treed river descended from the source which tourists strolled enjoying the peaceful sunlight filtered by the many trees. Petrarch lived in Fountaine de Vaucluse for a time. It would have been restful in the treed streets with the nearby cooling waters. He was a poet laureate in the thirteenth century known for his love sonnets and being a renaissance man ahead of his time. We were quickly being exposed to the charming stone houses on terraced hillsides in our walks in the surrounding hamlets. Lace curtains, shutters, and flowers give life to the quiet places we were passing.
